Launch

L is for Launch

On Saturday 23 February, 2019, I launched and celebrated the two children's noels I had published in 2018. Daniel Barker: By Power or Blight, and, Amy and Phoenix.

It was a wonderful afternoon with approximately 40 guests attending. My guests were representative of the different areas of my life - family, old and new friends, from the three writing groups I am in, church, school, and two politicians who I have spent time talking to about my theme which is difference, diversity and diability and who always been supportive of my endeavours.

I facilitated the Moreton Bay Region Local Writer Meet and Greet beforehand and ran a workshop on writer goal setting for 2019, which was successful. At the conclusion of the meet and greet it was time to set up for the book launch.

I held my double launch in the Pine Rivers Art Gallery which is a beautiful setting with the paintings and other artworks. My previous two book launches were held in local parks. I wanted something different for this one, and the art gallery was perfect.

If you have a book nearly at completion, it is time to start planning the launch. There are many things you need to think about - it could be seen as a much smaller scale wedding or like a significant birthday party. So here are my top tips for a successful book launch

1. Decide on the date

If you are traditionally published you will be given a date that the book will be released. If you are independently published you will have an approximate date you think your book will be printed and ready to go. Even if you are traditionally published, you will most likely have to organise your own launch.

When making the date there are some things to think about:

• What other activities are on at the same time? Will your friends and loved ones be able to come or are there a lot of other conflicting events on the same day?
•  If you would like your book launch put in your local council’s newsletter you will probably need to get that date to them six months in advance.
• If you need to book a venue, you will need to allow time to be able to negotiate this with them. They may not be able to do your first date. 
•  Make the book launch at least a month away (many say three months is better) so you can advertise and promote your book.  

 

2.  Choose the venue

     Where do you want to hold your book launch? There is no prescribed place. Many people hold their launches in bookshops or libraries, but you do not have to. I have held my book launches in two different parks and the local art gallery. I’ve had other friends hold their launches at sports clubs and in community halls. Do what you want to do. 
 

Some things to think about before you book your venue:

• The cost of the venue. If you are hiring a room in a library or a community hall, sports club venue etc.  you will need to pay.
• The weather. If you are outside, what will you do if the weather is inclement?
• Is the venue near public transport? You need to consider people who are unable to drive. All of my book launches have been near the train line.
• What facilities does the venue have? If you are at a park, are there toilets? Also, if you are at the park, what do you do for hot water etc.? If you are at the park you will also have the added furniture - gazebo, tables and chairs.

3. Send out your invitations

If your venue has a limit of the number of people it can hold, you will need a guest list or a ticketed event. Invite people from all the different areas of your life. On Saturday I had family, and friends from my three writing groups, school, church, my childhood and my community. If you don’t have a limit, invite everyone who you think might be interested in attending. 

After saying this, if you invite a large number of people, expect a large number of apologies. People are crazy busy and some people will just not want to attend. I had 70 apologies, and 40 people attended, and others who did not RSVP. Keep positive when all of those ‘I’m sorry I can’t make it…’ start coming in. Look at the people who do come and enjoy your celebration with them. 

   

    4. Marketing

A book launch is really a part of your marketing plan. Put your book launch on all of your social media platforms. Add snippets from your planning process, glimpses of your book and what it is about, and if you are able, make a promo video. It is a great idea to contact your local newspaper and ask if they would be interested in doing a story on you. In some instances, you may need to write a press release to send to media.

5. Plan your day 

Like a wedding, you will need to have a To Do list, and a program for the day. Think about everything you will need depending on what you want to do in your book launch. Some people like to do a book reading, have art and craft activities, dress-ups for the children, prizes, pantomimes, or have puppets. Think about yourself, the book you are launching, and how you can make it unique in some way. Don’t try and replicate someone else’s but by all means take ideas from others you have seen and like.
 

The basics:

• A banner
• Flyers, business cards, bookmarks
• Books (pre-sign to save time) and a pen
• A float/credit card facility (organise a person to handle the money for you on the day so you are free to just sign the books and chat)
• Decorations
• A cake & knife, tablecloth
• Food & drinks (plates, cups etc)
• Your speech
• Public liability insurance (check with venue)
• You must have some type of speech. Your guests will be in awe of you. Many people would love to write a book but will never. You have! Make sure you explain a little about your book, or read some of it (if it is a picture book then read it all) so they know what it is about, and say anything else that you think would interest your guests. You can have someone interview you, or you can tell a story and then relate it to your book, act out a play… whatever you are comfortable doing. Write a list of who you would like to thank in case you forget someone. Even though writing is a solidary activity, there will be people who helped or supported you, encouraged you or have influenced you in your journey. And if you forget someone who is present, go to them and apologise (I did this on Saturday!) I also suggest that if you suffer from anxiety, practise your speech beforehand.

6. Post about it afterwards

You’ll be exhausted afterwards, but this is not the end. You need to post on social media photos from the event and tell your followers how they can support you – by purchasing your books, posting reviews and telling people about you. 

Then it’s time to get on with more writing!

 To find out more about my children's novels, go to my website at www.jennywoolsey.com

Wonder

W is for Wonder

There has been a lot of talk lately about the above children's novel, Wonder written by Raquel Jaramillo, under the pen name of R. J. Palacio. It was published on February 14, 2012.

Explanation of Wonder at Wikipedia 

I was very interested to read this book when I first heard about it, as like Auggie the main character, I was born with a facial disfigurement. Also two of my children were born with a facial disfigurement, so the subject was very close to my heart. I needed to read the book to see if it resonated with mine or my children's experiences.

When I finished the story I had mixed feelings. The first page could have been written by me when I was a child and about my children when they were young. We did ordinary things, but others did not see us as ordinary children. Because our faces were 'abnormal', we were seen as different. Being different meant stares, pointing and comments.

The hardest thing about being born with a facial syndrome, is you can't hide your face. In the story, Auggie wears a motorcycle helmet to school - to me that seems a bit extreme. But I must confess to putting blankets over my children's prams when I didn't feel up to dealing with the public and wearing of sunglasses always hides eyes that are bulgy or turned.

The difference between Auggie and my experience, as well as my children's, is that we lived in the same town from babyhood to adulthood. Auggie lived in New York, which I suppose is why he wasn't well known (though I question this). We were known around the town from the moment we were born. It was only places where we weren't known that we struck the most difficulties.

Some of the chapters in Wonder are about Via, Auggie's older sister. Via was angry and sad about having a brother with a facial disfigurement. I know that my two older brothers still carry emotional scars from having me as their little sister. They hated that I had frequent medical appointments, and would get into physical fights at school protecting me. There were times that they would ignore me and not want me around. One of my brothers bullied me as well. In my children's case, the older two both have the syndrome and in some ways this mutual similarity has brought them closer. My youngest daughter is oblivious to them being different.

Auggie only had a few friends in Wonder. I was blessed with many friends. And my friends stood up to those who picked on me. I was invited to parties and playdates. I went to sleepovers. I played sport and was in Girl Guides. My best friends stayed best friends into adulthood. Something that Auggie didn't seem to have experienced.

My children did not experience the amount of bullying I did. Overall they were accepted. My daughter had friendship difficulties all the way through school, but whether it was her personality, the clickiness of the girls in her grade, some of her autistic traits or her face, we do not know. Auggie's small number of friends was attributed only to his face. In Year Two the other kids told my daughter that she had big eyes, and she didn't know how to cope with this. She didn't think she was different, so it was a shock to her to be told that she was. She acted out at that time and we had to work through the situation with her. In Year Four, my daughter had a facial halo on her face for four months. The halo pulled the bones in the middle of her face forward. She decided that she wanted to go to school with it on, once it was safe to do so. This was a massive thing for her to do but she did it. No one teased her about the halo. In fact most of the children were in awe of her braveness. We have photos of my daughter acting in the end of year play with her face painted around the halo and a flower in her hair. She had no bullying at all after this, though her friendship difficulties continued. She flourished until the end of Year Nine.

My son found his group early on and those friends have stayed with him from the beginning grades of primary school through into high school. Due to his surgeries my son was not allowed to do sports or play rough, so his group of friends have always been girls - and this has never bothered him. The other boys accepted the situation and if they did say something to him, it was water off a duck's back. My son didn't care what others thought. I can't say that my children's experiences mirrored Auggie's at school.

I guess the part of the story that most bugs me is the last part of the book about Julian. I have not heard of any child who's had nightmares about how my children looked. No parent ever reacted to them the way Julian's parents did and no way would someone be so callous as to photoshop out their faces. In fact my photos with my facial syndrome have been shared over facebook by my friends who I grew up with.

Now there are things about Wonder I like. It shines a light on people born or living with facial disfigurements. It highlights the amount of surgeries some children need to go through. (I had four, my daughter's had twelve, and my son's had eight) The book shows the different reactions kids can have. It focusses on bullying. It shows that Auggie sees himself as an ordinary child, though others don't. It shows the anxiety people who are different can encounter when they have to meet people for the first time, or go somewhere for the first time.And I like that it tells people to be kind to people born different.

I am curious to see the movie. I am curious to see how close to the book it is, and what creative interpretation has been made. I hope it is an empowering movie... A movie that shows that people born different can overcome.

At this point I must promote my own book, Ride High Pineapple. In my story, the main character, thirteen-year-old, Issy Burgess, also was born with a craniofacial syndrome (Crouzon syndrome). This is the syndrome that myself and my two children have. Issy is fictional but she is a mash-up of mine and my daughter's experiences in high school. The story, written as a journal, is real, honest and raw. People who know me and have read it, say they can hear my voice as they read it. Ride High Pineapple is a very different story to Wonder. It is about overcoming the bully by working on your passion, which in Issy's case is her love of skateboarding. The story is about not keeping secrets. It is about how awesome friendships can be, and the ups and downs girls experience. It is about dealing with severe anxiety by using the analogy of 'becoming a pineapple'. And Ride High Pineapple is also an Australian story which makes it unique. Anyone who was born different will identify with something in the story.

Ride High Pineapple is available online as a paperback or ebook. I would love people to read my story.

LINK TO AMAZON.COM - RIDE HIGH PINEAPPLE

Promoting RHP

 P is for Promoting Ride High Pineapple

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to promote my new children's novel, Ride High Pineapple. I began writing this book officially in 2014, though there had been a few sporadic attempts before then over fifteen years; the book being partly written in numerous forms but put away for another day. Never ever finished. Why? Because the subject matter of Ride High Pineapple - not the pineapple part, as I love pineapples - was too close to home.

You see the main character, 13-year-old Issy Burgess has something that I have. Something that I grew up being embarrassed and ashamed about; something that I hated talking about; something that would give me panic attacks if people questioned me about it; something that affected my self-esteem and self-worth and led me on a series of destructive paths in my teenage and young adult years; something growing up that I wished I hadn't been born with. And something two of my children were also born with.

What was it?

It was having a face that was different, labelled initially as 'Crouzon Disease', caused by a rare genetic mutation of a chromosome. This change in the chromosome told the cells forming the bones of the skull and face to stop growing too early.

In a 1977 Australian Women's Weekly magazine article a child with this syndrome was described as having a 'grotesque' deformity. At the time I was nine years-old and I thought I was more severe than that child - so what did that make me? 

Being born with this syndrome (at some stage it was renamed from being a disease to a syndrome), directed my life. It affected the happiness of my childhood. It affected how people treated me. People thought that they had the right to pass their judgements and prejudices onto me. I was different and that wasn't okay. It affected my personality. It affected the decisions I made in my life. It also has led me to write this book and be an advocate for facial differences, which is a positive thing.

In Ride High Pineapple, Issy Burgess, the protagonist (main character), was born with Crouzon syndrome.

And I am here to tell you, that it is okay to be different. It is okay to be born with a face that has grown in a different way, no matter what other people may think or say. 

I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager. 

So why did I write this book?

The main reason was because there was no other book in the world with the main character having my syndrome. There is the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio (http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/rj-palacio/wonder-9780552565974.aspx) but it is a very different story and it isn't written by an author who knows what it's like to be born with a craniofacial syndrome. I truly believe that unless you walk the walk you can't possibly know what it's like to be born with a face that is considered 'abnormal' or 'deformed'.

On my re-working of one of the early manuscripts of Ride High Pineapple, I added another dimension of myself to Issy. Something I knew I had but didn't have a name for - Generalised Anxiety Disorder. I was only diagnosed in 2013, in my 40s, after suffering with it since a child. So as a good writer does and with lots of awareness happening at the moment about mental illness, I gave Issy this as well. In the book all sorts of things stress her out and give her symptoms.

So what's all that got to do with pineapples? Well I want you to read Ride High Pineapple, to find out. But some hints are:  Pineapples are tough on the outside; not many things can penetrate the prickly thick barbs. Pineapples are strong. Pineapples have a crown on top. Pineapples are sweet on the inside.  

Some other interesting facts about Ride High Pineapple.

The story is written as a journal. It is raw, honest and gutsy.  The characters in the story are fictitious but there are parts of the story that are factual.
For example:

*Issy gives a speech to her Year Nine class. This speech was based on the speech my daughter presented to her Year Eight class to explain her face. I changed it to suit the story.

*At the time of writing the novel, my daughter loved skateboarding, so this was the influence for the sport. She also had an accident on her board, face planting on the concrete. Because of her facial surgeries we had to take her to the hospital to make sure her nose wasn't broken or damage had been done to the bones in her face.

* The medical and hospital information is all true, based on my own and my children's experiences.

So I would love your support in helping to promote Ride High Pineapple. Let's be partners! Please spread the word about my book and  buy a book or download the ebook.

RRP paperback $15 AUD
RP ebook $4.14 AUD
Postage within Australia is $5

It's available at:

Amazon.com

Ebay.com.au

Direct bank deposit for Australian customers -
bsb: 062692  account no: 27847742

Hear some of my story in my Ride High Pineapple book launch speech